Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
“Anyway,” he said, obviously noting her sudden discomfort, “I could probably dig up her name if you need it—the fan club president. She emails me once in a while. She still lives in town, as far as I know.”
“Yeah, if you could send me her name, that would be great.” It seemed like a dead-end lead, but no stone unturned and all that. “From what we can tell, the cards are sold in lots of shops across the city.”
Gavin sipped his coffee. “I see them sometimes, but I doubt sales are anywhere near what they were during my poker career.” He eyed her. “What were the suits?” he asked. “Of the cards the victim was holding?”
Before she could answer, her phone, sitting on the table next to her water glass, rang suddenly. Main Squeeze showed up on her screen, the name Brandon had jokingly programmed into her phone to identify himself. She snatched it up, but not before she saw that Gavin’s gaze was lowered to where the phone had been. He’d obviously seen the caller’s “name.” Not that it mattered one bit.
Except that it was a private inside joke between her and the man she was dating. The man who’d called her half a dozen times today and who she hadn’t yet called back. “Excuse me,” she said, scooting out of the booth and picking up the case file. She couldn’t imagine it would endear her to Sergeant Dahlen if she left an active case file on a bar table. “I need to take this call.”
She walked toward the back of the bar, sticking the file under her arm, and answered as she ducked into the small, dark hallway that led to the restrooms. “Hi, Bran.”
“Hey, babe. I just saw the news conference out of Reno.”
“Yeah, it’s been a whirlwind of a day.”
“It sounds like it. A murder case already?”
“Yup. The body was found last night, and we hit the ground running. I was getting a bite to eat, and then I was going to call. I’m just finishing up here. Can I call you as soon as I get home?”
“Sure.” He sounded a little disappointed, but whether Gavin Decker had walked in or not, she’d rather get home and talk to Brandon there than in a public bar. She owed him her complete attention, even if it was only over the phone. In many ways, their relationship had been put on the back burner while she’d been caught up in her own personal scandal and the subsequent fallout. “I’ll be waiting. And hey, I miss you.”
“I miss you too. Talk soon.” She pressed end, then took a moment to stand in the empty hallway, where she took several deep breaths. She had this discombobulated feeling inside, as if her world were contained in a glass globe and someone had just given it a good shake so that everything she’d once known was still there but completely and utterly displaced. She squeezed her eyes shut momentarily as though that might set things back in order.
But the feeling remained.
She walked slowly back to the table where Gavin still sat, his gaze sweeping over her body as she returned to the seat across from him. His eyes were slightly hooded, his expression blank in that purposeful way of his. She shut the thought down. She had no idea what his “ways” were anymore. Perhaps she never really had. She pulled out her credit card and set it on the table where the waitress had dropped off her bill.
“I already took care of it,” Gavin said.
She huffed out an annoyed breath. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
He gave a noncommittal shrug as though her opinion of what he should or should not do held little weight. And now her indignation was back. It seemed it had just taken a sideline briefly. She began gathering her things. “I have to get going.”
“I’ll need your information,” he said.
“Excuse me?”
“If I’m going to email you the name of the woman who designed those cards.”
Cards. Fan club president. “Oh. Right. Yes.” She removed a pristine business card from the small stack she’d put in her purse from the box on her desk when she’d arrived the day before. He glanced at it, tapping it on the table for a moment and then sliding it into his wallet on the table.
Sienna slid out of the booth, hitching her purse up on her shoulder and grabbing the file folder on the table. “Thanks for your . . . assistance, and . . . it was . . . I’m glad to see you doing so well.”
He looked both slightly amused and just a little irritated. “I’m happy to help. I’ll get that information over to you.” With a quick tip of her chin, she turned. “And Sienna.” His head was turned to the side, but he didn’t swivel enough to meet her eyes. When she looked back at him, she only saw his masculine profile—sharp jawline, straight nose, dark-gold lashes underneath a heavy brow. “I’m glad to see you too.”